FINE WOOL SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 89 



" In 1854: 1 visited Silesia and made the purchases 

 myself. 



" 2d. The sheep were bred by Louis Fischer, of 

 "Wirchenblatt, Silesia, except a few which were bred 

 by his near neighbor, Baron "Weidebach, who used 

 Fischer's breeders. 



3d. Their origin is Spain. In 1811, Ferdinand Fis- 

 cher, the father of Louis Fischer, the present owner of 

 the flock, visited Spain himself and purchased one 

 hundred of the best ewes he could find of the Infan- 

 tado flocks, and four bucks from the Nigretti flock, 

 and took them home with him to Silesia, and up 

 to the present day they have not been crossed with 

 any other flocks or blood, but they have been crossed 

 within the families. The mode pursued is to number 

 every sheep, and give the same number to all her in- 

 crease ; an exact record is kept in books, and thus Mr. 

 Fischer is enabled to give the pedigree of every sheep 

 he owns, running back to 1811, which is positive proof 

 of their entire purity of blood. The sheep are perhaps 

 not as^ large as they would be if a little other blood 

 were infused ; but Mr. Fischer claims that entire pu- 

 rity of blood is indispensably necessary to insure uni- 

 formity of improvement when crossed on ordinary 

 wool grower's flocks ; and such is the general opinion 

 of wool growers in Germany, Poland, and Russia, 

 which enables Mr. Fischer to sell at high prices as 

 many bucks and ewes as he can spare ; and as he and 

 his father have enjoyed this reputation for so many 

 years, I am fully of opinion that he is right. From 

 these facts you will observe that my sheep are pure 

 Spanish. 



" 4th. Medium aged ewes shear from 8 to 11 

 pounds; bucks from 12 to 16 pounds ; but in regard 

 to ewes, it must be borne in mind that they drop their 

 lambs from November to February, which lightens 

 the clip somewhat. I do not wash my sheep. 



